The wedding of Helen & Steven is a DIY extravaganza! Not only did the Bride design her own stationery, make her own table runners, create the prettiest floral hanging letters you ever did see, BUT Helen also designed her own wedding dress.

This is one style-savvy lady.

In order to create their own vintage-styled day they needed a rather glamorous location that would be über flexible and supportive of their crafting, it had to be Rise Hall.

Enjoy!

Notes from the Bride

Helen:

Rise Hall was simply beautiful, it was amazing to find a venue with so much character but in such good condition and finished so perfectly. Everything felt so romantic and our guests commented on how the house had such a warm feeling. We decided to make full use of the house and have the dance floor in the gallery, it was great to have a blank canvas to decorate and the venue is very flexible about letting you set up and use the venue as you would like.

The best thing for me though was that not only do you have the whole house to yourself there are no consecutive weddings and so you can socialise and leave at your leisure, with so many of the other venues I looked at it felt like I would be on a Bride conveyor belt. To top it off the staff made the day, I can’t praise them enough for their attention and efforts to make everything perfect. We had the wedding on a Thursday too which saved us a bundle!

I decided to design my dress myself with the help of my Maid of Honour, Kate. I found there weren’t many dresses that looked as romantic as I would like, I used to work in a wedding dress shop too which left me particularly fussy! It was amazing to have a dress I knew no-one else would have and it meant I could be as fussy as I wanted including choosing the fabrics! It saved me a lot of money but you have to be brave (or darn crazy) as you can’t try the dress on ’til near the wedding when it’s made, so you have to know what shapes suit your body.

I went with shoes by Rachel Simpson, and added some shoe clips to add a little sparkle, they were comfortable and felt really elegant too. My head piece was by Klaire Van Elton and I absolutely loved it, I wanted something pretty and a little sparkly but wanted to keep the whole look really vintage.

I did my make up myself and wore a combination of Mac, Bobby Brown and Chanel. I get to keep it all afterwards and now have a much better understanding of how to apply make up.

I went slightly more modern with the bridesmaids outfits as I wanted to step away from the traditional dresses so I opted for a skirt and top combo with a statement necklace. The skirts were amazing for twirling and I kept the colours soft and pale to go with the theme of the wedding.

The groomsmen wore French Connection suits in an indigo to contrast against the soft and girly bridesmaids outfits, the ties were a different shade of blue but the groom wore contrasting accessories to differentiate. They wore brown shoes to keep with the country feel.

Aside from the chair covers I did most of the venue styling myself. I wanted to have a kind of vintage country house feel to the day but without losing the feeling of grandness and luxury that comes with the venue. We made pretty much everything even down to the table runners. The biggest project was probably the floral lettering that hung from the gallery. We made some of the flowers from crepe and tissue paper using articles on pinterest and bought the rest in bunches of fake flowers which we pulled apart. We hung using fishing wire, luckily the venue are very facilitating allowing you to set up the night before!

The favours were a wild strawberry liqueur which we poured into small bottles, the ‘drink me’ tags and name tags were designed by myself and my bridesmaid Eleanor and I got everyone to help in putting them all together and tying round the rosemary.

I used crates from vintage shops and my home to create the table display and I used a vintage coal box for the cards which I bought from the antiques centre in Newark along with big tin baths for ice cold ales. I even used my own dressing table/bureau made from an old piano to use for the sweet table. I bought sweet jars from car boot sales and vintage shops and filled with old fashioned sweets.

It worked out cheaper and was great to see everything come together, it was a lot of effort but it was a lovely feeling to know that you made it all and that lots of the guests had helped.

The flowers were by Floral Elements, we used mainly peonies but these can be expensive so we used a lot of gypsophila as a cheaper filler. For centre pieces I collected arrangements of second hand vintage jars and vases.

The photography was by Inspire Images, Katherine was brilliant on the day and somehow managed to be everywhere at once. She managed to capture all of the funny moments such as the bridesmaid skirts flapping up in the wind! She also did a DIY photo booth which was really fun and we brought some props of our own.

The best part of the day for me was the ceremony. I was dreading walking down the aisle and speaking in front of everyone and I got so nervous I messed up my own name! It sounds like a nightmare but it made for a very giggly ceremony all round and it completely lightened up the mood and made it so much more enjoyable!

Words of Wedded Wisdom…

The best advice I can give would be to get your bridesmaids/groomsmen to get drinks and canapés for you so that you don’t have to miss out, it also means you get to see them more and you break away from long conversations to mingle!